


Snakes and Tiny Glass

by magdalyna



Series: Cultverse [4]
Category: Bandom
Genre: Creepy, Cults, Dubious Consent, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-04
Updated: 2012-07-04
Packaged: 2017-11-09 03:47:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/450897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magdalyna/pseuds/magdalyna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gabe in the beginning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Snakes and Tiny Glass

**Author's Note:**

> This is in the cultverse that queenofhell started. 
> 
> Creepyness abounds.

*

The world is going to be his. He will be famous, a rock star. People will scream, yell, moan, groan, chant his name. They will follow him blindly, faithfully. 

He will make sure of it. 

*

He remembers seeing New York City for the first time.

It was all so chaotic: people like grains of flowing, muddy sand. ( _His father told him that sand was just tiny bits of natural glass that got churned up from the ocean. He used to think that whenever he wandered Montevideo’s beaches that he was cutting minuscule slices into his feet with each step, leaving bits of himself behind him._ ) People were loud, brash, talked in strange deafening sounds that would later make sense to him. ( _He never forgave having to abandon his mother tongue. He was going to be important. Other, lesser, people could learn his tongue._ ) There were so many crabbed, short, tall buildings in a maze that he couldn’t take it all in. 

He ends up growing, learning, living in Queens. 

*

The future leader of the world is an outcast at school, at the bodega ( _A familiar word in a sea of change_ ), at the strange churches his father takes the two of them to ( _He doesn’t see the point in believing in a false god. He will lead people so why should there be any other? He will be famous, will be a rock god._ ). 

He doesn’t fit in: strange name, strange looks, strange ideas about music. ( _Who does he think he is, that he could be talented??? Spending his Papi’s money on foolish things!_ ) 

The music of past generations reaching across an ocean speaks to his tumultuous inner sea. Punk especially. He begins to have a better idea of his sound, at this point. ( _Messing around on a nameless guitar his father bought at a pawn shop had helped before this._ )

*

His father was a doctor in Montevideo and thus expects him to go to college and get an education. Gabe will appease his father in this because he needs the time alone to perfect his sound. He needs band members. 

He sets his sights high. Rutgers is a challenge to get into and he enjoys the process. The school is another challenge. He tackles it perfectly. ( _It proves his worthiness to lead. As if there was any doubt._ )

*

Midtown is something else altogether. 

He didn’t really have a message back then, besides his bare ambition. ( _He would learn to sugar coat things. But not by much. It was his one acknowledged flaw._ ) But they all had ambition. He didn’t stand out too much as indisputable leader of Midtown. 

Midtown was a whirlwind of growing crowds, drinking, friendships, and above all, the music. He lived to give the world his music. ( _Only infidels would dare to reject his sound. His gift to the world would not be besmirched. They would be dealt with accordingly._ )

*

For all of its positive, life affirming, life long dream realizing attributes, the rock star lifestyle was just too toxic for Gabe to stand for more than a few years. 

He was always on, always performing for some kind of audience, even if it was just his bandmates. Being normal was never his strong suit. Then there were the legal parasitic dealings that leached on his soul. 

He had to go clear his head, get some perspective. Find another reason for his life. 

So in typical rock star fashion, he took off for the American southwest. 

*

The desert in America was unlike anything he had ever seen. 

There was sand and rock and blazing sun and cacti and all manner of creations willing to have his dying carcass for their next meal. He felt oddly at home. 

A funny thing about desert wind: screams don’t carry like they normally do. 

A funny thing about desert sand: blood is the ink to this natural blotting paper. 

A funny thing about taking peyote with old craggy Natives with glinting silver and lustrous turquoise bracelets who spit tobacco: they say that vision quests happen. 

( _By the time he gets back to civilization, the twin bite marks have faded. He still has believers._ )

*

At first there is doubt. Denial. He took peyote for days. ( _This is just one more thing that’s abnormal about him._ )

Then there is a rush of fury. ( _He didn’t need anyone telling him his destiny. He already knew it. Thought he knew it. It didn’t matter. He hated people telling him what to do._ )

Negotiations came next. Maybe if he just did this one song. ( _He should have known that one wouldn’t be enough. There is never enough music, never enough believers, never enough people doing what he wants them to._ )

It wasn’t that he became depressed, exactly. He just lost enthusiasm for most of his favored activities before this mess started. ( _Gabe is an excellent liar. How do you think he has followers? It’s an asset he takes pride in._ )

Then the movie dropped into his lap. He was done with trying to deny it. The Cobra would be his message. He got a supergroup together and did a video. ( _Travis and William are friends with some dude named Pete Wentz from Chicago. Maja is just cool. He puts together an actual group after this._ )

*

He writes love songs about keeping people in his basement. 

At first, there isn’t much in it. Just a small mattress, some restraints and one very cheap video camera. ( _Oh, but Gabe has plans for his basement. So many plans. Better sound, better lighting, more bindings. But this is just the beginning._ )

His real Cobra Starship band breaks it in. He makes them all take in the Cobra. They all get it easily. Little Nate who was just three days out of high school moved into his basement, he was so dedicated to the Cobra. Elisa is there to help him move in. She is the most dedicated besides Nate. ( _He enjoyed breaking her. It’s a fun tape. But he has a feeling about her that he can’t place._ )

*

He gets to know Pete after the video. He discovers that Pete has a message too. ( _A scrabbling, crawling, hideous part of him wants to destroy everything around him, including Pete when he learns this. He’s special and only him. Power will be his, absolutely._ )

Pete tries to counsel him sometimes, trying to work with him. Pete tries to tell him what to do about Elisa’s … new lack of loyalty. ( _Some people are more dedicated to the message; implicit is that that someone is Nate._ ) Gabe knows she must die. She does and Pete is pissed. Gabe doesn’t care. He’s past caring about Pete. ( _Loose canon._ )

*

Patrick is a work of art. He wants to rip him up piece by piece and watch Pete try and fix it. Patrick’s time in the basement is all the sweeter because of it. But Pete is out of control, just for letting it happen. He doesn’t have his act together. Gabe won’t take anymore about the Elisa thing after this. 

Patrick doesn’t take the Cobra, just as he thought. He and William watch the tape after Pete and Patrick have left, jacking each other off while drinking Jack Daniels. Gabe counts it as a good weekend. 

*

The only thorn in Gabe’s side that isn’t Pete Wentz related is Gerard Way.

Specifically the way all of Way’s followers won’t take the Cobra, rant song lyrics, refuse to listen to him when he’s trying to convert them in his basement. ( _Trying to make believers out of them. Saving them from false faith._ ) He went into a blind rage and twisted the first boy’s neck. ( _He flees his own basement. There’s something wrong with that on a fundamental level._ ) He has a scowl fixed firmly on his face as Nate silently helps him dispose of the body. The sky is grapefruit red as the sun rises. He drinks a full bottle of Jack Daniels and passes out. ( _Hatehatehatehatehatehate power must be mine hatehate Cobra help me._ )

 

*

The waves lap at his feet, the muddy sand sluices between his toes. He imagines that the sand is cutting up his tiny feet molecule by molecule and will leave microscopic scars. It’s what he father says happens. Sand is tiny glass after all. 

A snake slithers out from behind a rock, flicking its tongue at him. Suddenly it lunges at him, tiny fangs sliding into the flesh of his ankle. 

When he wakes up, he knows certain truths about the world: 

The world is going to be his. He will be famous, a rock star. People will scream, yell, moan, groan, chant his name. They will follow him blindly, faithfully. 

( _You see kid, there is no salvation. Your destiny is to teach hipsters to not take themselves so seriously and to tell emo kids to stop being pussies._ )

He will make sure of it. 

 

~fini


End file.
